


ain't easy being pretty or (secretly) smart

by lightningrani



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Episode: s01e11 Formality, Gen, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-15 05:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1293109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningrani/pseuds/lightningrani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Winter Formal was here, and Lydia was not pleased at all.</p><p>The Winter Formal dance in Formality (1x11) from Lydia's POV. Will stop before the attack, I promise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ain't easy being pretty or (secretly) smart

**Author's Note:**

> I have a headcanon for Lydia. If you're interested about what I think her thought processes are, look at my fic Fake It and Make It. 
> 
> Not too terribly happy with the ending, but that's probably what I get for following canon. All dialogue comes straight from the episode, which I got from some forum with episode transcripts (thank you Forever Dreaming!). If things are off, blame MTV; they took down the episodes just as I was finishing this up :( *forever bitter*.

Winter Formal was not going the way she wanted it to. First, Jackson dumped her. And no, she was not going to think about it anymore, or else she would start to cry and her meticulously applied makeup would smear.

Then, because Allison learned about what she did to Scott—another one of her decisions which she’ll blame on hormones—she was forced to go with Stiles Stilinski, one of the weirdest people in their whole class.

(She wasn’t really angry at Allison for this; considering how much she violated the girl code, Allison could have justifiably asked for something worse.)

Sure, Stiles was somewhat interesting—his long-winded rants were very informative at times—but after being dumped by Jackson, it did not help her social image to go out with him of all people. Hell, if Scott was her date, it would have been so much better. Except for the fact that Allison would eviscerate her.

So here she was, sitting in his dingy jeep, ignoring how he looked at her. It was the same with all the boys she knew; they all saw her pretty face and then all their blood rushed downwards. Obviously Allison set this whole thing up as a favor to him.

At least he was wearing a nice tuxedo.

**

Of course she would run into Jackson outside in the parking lot while she was trying to remove any filth that clung to her dress after sitting in that grungy old Jeep. Of course he would find her when she was at her most rattled.

There he was, smirking in superiority. Because Allison was a good date for some of their social status, while Stiles was not.

“Jackson, you look handsome.” Might as well look polite in this situation. And he did look nice in his tailored tux. Damn hormones.

“Obviously. It's Hugo Boss,” looking at Stiles as he said it. Damn it, she did not want to be reminded of how Stiles looked in relation to the people she usually dated.

And then he just left, Allison trailing behind him, without giving her a compliment. Of course Jackson could be a douche and no one would care. Of course.

She needed to hold herself together or else he would get exactly what he wanted.

“I don't care,” she said to herself. “I don't want compliments. I will not fall prey to society's desire to turn girls into emotional, insecure neurotics who pull up their dresses at the first flattering remark.”

“Well, I think you look beautiful,” interrupted Stiles. And the way he said it, well, it sounded like she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.

She was pretty sure her face revealed her true feelings about that line. Being with Jackson, while better for her social image, wasn’t the best for her self-esteem. Not many people are truly nice to the popular girl here.

She gave him her arm and Stiles escorted her into the dance. Maybe the dance will be better than expected.

**

All her good feelings had evaporated by the time the dance started.

Lydia could feel everyone staring at her as she sat patiently at the table. They were looking for any sign of weakness but she wasn’t giving them anything.

Stiles was fidgeting, like he had been since they arrived here. Probably because of nerves. He probably thought he was going to have the date of his dreams, but just because Lydia was forced to go on a date didn’t mean she had to enjoy it.

“You wanna dance?” Stiles asked suddenly.

Lydia looked him over and simply said, “Pass.” That should be enough to cool his flames.

“You know what? Let me try that again.” Stiles stood up and faced her in an aggressive manner. “Lydia - get off your cute little ass and dance with me now.”

Apparently it had the opposite effect.  But seriously, who was this guy to tell her what to do?

“Interesting tactic,” she said, because really, he could have gone with ‘get off your fucking ass’ or something a bit more angrier, but he didn’t. It still didn’t change her opinion. “I'm gonna stick with no.”

Apparently this set him off, as he started going on a rant about everything which she had done to wrong him.  She ignored him—it was better not to engage ranting people—until he said he had loved her since third grade, because what?

Lydia did not think Stiles could be that creepy, but that was kind of creepy. If he had been crushing on her for so long, how the heck did she not notice anything? Okay, maybe he stared a bit too much, but she thought that was just plain attraction.

And there was no way that he could love her just by looking at the mask. If he did, he just loved a shell.

She was seriously considering how rude it would be if she tried to sneak out of this arranged date, Stiles said the only thing which could have stopped her from leaving.

“And I'm also pretty sure that I'm the only one who knows how smart you really are.”

And it was like her whole world stopped.

How did this boy, this one person, figure out her secret? How was it that this guy with an obsession was the one to see the flaws that were, frankly, not that well hidden?

Why was it him?

Oh, she knew that Stiles was smart, that was for sure. And it wouldn’t surprise her that, when he got obsessed with something, that he would spend all his attention on it. So maybe she was overestimating the implausibility of the whole situation.

And maybe she was focusing on the wrong part of the equation.

He still loved her knowing what she was.

But the whole scenario was still creepy.

She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to tell Stiles exactly what was on her mind, in the most scathing way possible. She wanted him to know that, no matter how much he thought she knew him, he really didn’t. And, frankly, the fact that he was using her secret like a weapon to get what he wanted was disgusting.

But yelling would get her nowhere, and would just further destroy her image. Lydia had no choice.

“And that once you're done pretending to be a nitwit - you'll eventually go off and write some insane mathematical theorem that wins you the Nobel Prize,” Stiles finished, with an almost triumphant look in his eye, like he knew she how she was going to react.

But if she had to walk down that path, then she might as well control the situation as much as possible.

“A Fields Medal,” she replied coolly, enjoying his confusion. “Nobel doesn't have a prize for mathematics. The Fields Medal's the one I'll be winning.”

She knew he was probably dying inside from fulfilling his fantasy, but she didn’t care. Giving him a dance was a way to ensure the safety of her position.

And that was all she needed right now.

**

The dance was slowing down. Whatever happened with Scott was none of her concern, but she bet Allison was having a much more enjoyable night than she expected.

Stiles was doing the best to be the perfect gentleman. He kept his hands in the appropriate places and acted better than Jackson. He knew that this wasn’t going to last forever, at least.

Speaking of Jackson… Lydia was keeping an eye on him, to make sure that he wasn’t badmouthing her when she wasn’t looking. Maybe in the commotion of the Scott’s getaway he slipped out, but why would he do that?

She shouldn’t be caring about Jackson, the guy who stomped on her heart and disgraced her in front of everyone.

Damn hormones.

Sadly, her attempts to be subtle about the whole scenario failed miserably.

“You okay?”

Lydia tried to give an excuse, but Stiles wouldn’t take it. He knew she was looking for Jackson, and actually let her go to look for him.

That was… sweet. Jackson would have yelled at her more for that.

(The more she thought about it, the more she realized exactly how much of a dick Jackson was)

Maybe she should spend more time talking to Stiles. After all, he knew that she was as smart as hell and at least attempted to treat her with respect.

But not on this awkward date, no way. He was not her type, and she didn’t want to raise his hopes anymore. Might as well look for Jackson and see if he ended up drunk in a ditch.

After all, what was the worst that could happen?


End file.
